He is any day a better candidate for the Nehru-Gandhi legacy than the current claimants in the political arena. A cerebral politician, Varun Gandhi has carved a niche for himself as an author and thinker. His anthology of poems, Stillness, is widely appreciated. This time he has come out with ‘A Rural Manifesto’ focusing on the rural distress and the plight of the people living in the hinterlands.
Once a star campaigner for the BJP, he is now on the margins with no clear role for him in the party. There were rumours that he might join the Congress but now even that seems remote.
“In this heartfelt and timely book, covering facets of the rural economy, Feroze Varun Gandhi shines a bright light on the travails of the marginal farmer and asks searching questions on why the rural economy remains in doldrums, six decades after independence. The book, through a series of vignettes, explores rural India’s innate perseverance and highlights potential solutions in development policy with a focus on making the rural economy resilient,” reads an advertisement introducing the book.
The author hopes to trigger a national conversation on rural distress and potential solutions to put the village economy on an even keel. The book is brought out by Rupa.
“Farmers in Champaran district in Bihar, a century back, under the Tinkathia system, were forced to set aside 15 per cent of their land for the cultivation of indigo. Even after these were planted, the farmers were still subject to a variety of extortionist cesses, termed ‘abwabs’ – even the cost of an elephant for colonial shikaar was included. Farmers naturally rose in resistance in the thousands, but were crushed by the East India Company until the arrival of a barrister from South Africa, who fought for the cause of the harassed tillers of the soil. And yet, a century after the Mahatma sought freedom from exploitation for them, India’s farmers remain a beleaguered lot,” writes Varun in his book.
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